Abrasive Blasting, Shot Peening & Surface Prep worked example
Compressor Air Demand at 98% simultaneous nozzle duty factor: a worked example
This scenario runs the compressor air demand calculation on the strong side: 98% simultaneous nozzle duty factor, with every other input held at its documented default. you are deciding whether the available compressor package can hold blast pressure for the nozzles in service
The inputs for this scenario
- Total nozzle air consumed: 2,400 cfm-hr (unchanged)
- Hours of active blasting: 8 hr (unchanged)
- Simultaneous nozzle duty factor: 98 % (raised for this scenario; the documented default is 85)
Working through the calculation
- Applying the documented formula (Raw demand = nozzle air volume รท blast runtime) to the inputs above produces each figure below.
- At this operating point the engine returns 294 cfm for effective compressor demand, the number this scenario is built around.
- At this operating point the engine returns 300 cfm for raw nozzle demand.
- At this operating point the engine returns 98 % for simultaneous nozzle load.
- At this operating point the engine returns 8 hr for blast runtime.
How this compares with the baseline
- Against the tool's baseline example, where simultaneous nozzle duty factor sits at 85% and the headline result is 255 cfm, this scenario comes in 15.29% above the baseline at 294 cfm.
- Use it when specifying or renting a compressor for a blast job, or checking whether existing air will hold pressure across all nozzles. Treat this as a target state: the delta against the baseline quantifies what the improvement is worth before you commit to chasing it.
Results at a glance
- Effective compressor demand: 294 cfm (headline result)
- Raw nozzle demand: 300 cfm
- Simultaneous nozzle load: 98 %
- Blast runtime: 8 hr
Run it with your numbers
- Every input above is editable in the live Compressor Air Demand calculator, which recalculates instantly and can be shared with the inputs intact.
Last reviewed 2026-05-12.